Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux) was a French Benedictine monk who went to India to establish a true Indian Christian monasticism. Together with Jules Monchanin, he founded the Christian ashram Shantivanam. Abhishiktananda tried to emulate the advaitic (nondual) experience of the Hindu sage Ramana Maharshi. Abhishiktananda is inconsistent in how he interprets his experience. This reflects inconsistencies in Ramana's own interpretation of advaita. Ramana was not the traditional advaitin that Abhishiktananda believed him to be. He relied on many non-traditional sources, including yoga, tantra, neo-Hinduism, theosophy and even Christianity. Furthermore, the story of Ramana's enlightenment is not as simple as Abhishiktananda assumed. This book explores Abhishiktananda's Hindu/Christian experience and how it changed his Christian beliefs. Using comparative philosophy, this book also analyzes what nondual experience means for our perception, our thinking, our ethics, our experience of reality, and our relation to God.

Swami Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux, 1910-1973) was one of the most fascinating spiritual figures of the 20th century and a bridge-builder between East and West. In his extraordinary book Guru and Disciple, Swami Abhishiktananda gives a vivid and magnificent account of his meeting with Sri Gnanananda Giri, an Advaitic sage whom he met at his ashram in Tamil Nadu. He regarded this encounter as one of the high points of his life in India, for it was at that time that he recognized him as his guru. Through the intense upadesha (teaching) and unreserved grace of Sri Gnanananda, Swami Abhishiktananda was led closer to the heart of Advaita. He spoke of his retreat with him as days of grace, "days of peace and fulfilment... when one was conscious of living at a spiritual depth in which the whole world of outward appearance has been left behind and one has come close to what is Real." Indeed, he received from his guru the purest teaching of a jnani (realized sage)-which was none other than the timeless message of the Upanishads: Behind the appearance of the phenomenal ego is the Ultimate Reality, the eternal Self of All, which can be directly realized. Guru and Disciple has been praised by many as a classic and as being one of the most remarkable introductions in recent times to the importance of meditation (dhyana) and the essential nature of the spiritual master-the guru tattva-of which Sri Gnanananda Giri was the perfect embodiment.

Publisher Description

This book examines the space of meeting between two religions that open up when there are honest attempts at interreligious learning. Taking Abhishiktananda and Bede Griffiths as examplars, and the meeting between Advaita Vedanta and Christianity, the nature of the theological movements within this ‹Third Space› are identified, and the resultant hybridities are assessed for their relevance to each tradition. After brief biographical sketches, the author considers how these two monks related to the Indian space and the background of colonial history, and then proceeds to use comparative theology and postcolonial theory to examine their theology. Third Space Theory provides insights into the process of hybridization that is taking place, leading to an appreciation of the importance and challenge in the modern world of Third Spaces of meeting. «Jonathan Smith provides important explorations and reflections on a ‹third space› and the contribution of a postcolonial theology to the understanding of Christianity and Hinduism. It is a fresh and new challenging work on Abhishiktananda and Bede Griffiths.» Professor Mario I. Aguilar, Director of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Politics, University of St. Andrews «This is a deeply learned and skilful exercise in interweaving resources of postcolonial theory and interreligious dialogue which highlights the multiple processes of conjunction, disjunction, opposition, and osmosis that dynamically shape the in-between domains of Hindu-Christian engagements». Dr Ankur Barua, Lecturer in Hindu Studies, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge

Drawn from the world's religions, this work takes the reader on a pilgrimage to the heart of prayer and reveals why prayer is the essence of the human condition.